Nationalism in India

1. Chapter at a Glance

In India, as in many colonies, modern nationalism grew together with the anti-colonial movement. People discovered their unity in the process of their struggle against colonialism. Different classes and groups felt the effects of colonial rule differently and imagined freedom differently, and the Indian National Congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to forge these groups into one movement. This chapter follows the story from the First World War through the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation movements, the Civil Disobedience movement and the Salt March, the limits of participation, and how a sense of collective belonging was created.

2. The First World War, Khilafat and Non-Cooperation

Effects of the war

• Huge increase in defence expenditure financed by war loans and higher taxes; customs duties raised and income tax introduced.
• Prices nearly doubled between 1913 and 1918, causing extreme hardship.
• Forced recruitment in villages caused widespread anger.
• In 1918–19 and 1920–21 crops failed in many parts of India; food shortages were followed by an influenza epidemic. According to the 1921 census, 12 to 13 million people died of famines and the epidemic.

The idea of satyagraha

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915 from South Africa, where he had fought racist regimes with a novel method, satyagraha — the power of truth and the need to search for truth. If the cause was true and the struggle against injustice, physical force was not necessary; a satyagrahi could win by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor through non-violence.

The Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh

Despite opposition from Indian members, the Imperial Legislative Council hurriedly passed the Rowlatt Act (1919), giving the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowing detention of political prisoners without trial for two years. Gandhiji launched a nationwide satyagraha, beginning with a hartal on 6 April 1919. On 13 April 1919 a crowd gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar — some to protest the repressive measures, others for the annual Baisakhi fair, many unaware of martial law. General Dyer blocked the exits and opened fire, killing hundreds. His object was to "produce a moral effect" — to create terror in the minds of satyagrahis. The incident provoked strikes, clashes and attacks on government buildings across north India; seeing violence spread, Gandhiji called off the movement.

Khilafat and Non-Cooperation

Gandhiji felt the need for a broad-based movement uniting Hindus and Muslims. The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey, and there were rumours of a harsh peace treaty on the Ottoman emperor — the spiritual head of the Islamic world, the Khalifa. A Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919; young leaders Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali discussed joint action with Gandhiji. At the Calcutta session (September 1920) Gandhiji convinced the Congress to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat and swaraj; at the Nagpur session (December 1920) the programme was adopted.

In his book Hind Swaraj (1909) Gandhiji declared that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of Indians and had survived only because of it; if Indians refused to cooperate, British rule would collapse within a year. The proposed stages: surrender of government-awarded titles; boycott of civil services, army, police, courts, legislative councils, schools and foreign goods; and, if the government used repression, a full civil disobedience campaign.

3. Differing Strands Within the Movement

In the towns

The movement started with middle-class participation. Thousands of students left government schools and colleges, headmasters and teachers resigned, and lawyers gave up their practices. Council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras, where the Justice Party (of non-Brahmans) contested. Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires. The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping from ₹102 crore to ₹57 crore. But the movement slowed down: khadi was often more expensive than mill cloth, and the boycott of British institutions required alternative Indian institutions that came up slowly, so students and teachers began trickling back.

Rebellion in the countryside

• Awadh: peasants led by Baba Ramchandra — a sanyasi who had earlier been an indentured labourer in Fiji — rose against talukdars and landlords who demanded high rents and begar (forced labour). They demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of begar and social boycott of oppressive landlords. The Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up in October 1920 headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and others. In 1921 the movement turned to attacks on talukdars' houses and looting of bazaars.
• Gudem Hills (Andhra Pradesh): a militant guerrilla movement spread in the early 1920s. The colonial government had closed large forest areas, preventing people from grazing cattle and collecting fuelwood and fruits. Alluri Sitarama Raju, who claimed special powers and inspired the hill people, led attacks on police stations; he was captured and executed in 1924.
• Plantation workers in Assam: under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, workers were not allowed to leave the tea gardens without permission. Hearing of the movement, thousands defied the authorities and headed home, believing "Gandhi Raj" was coming; they were caught on the way and brutally beaten.

Each group interpreted swaraj in its own way — for plantation workers, freedom to move; for peasants, an end to landlord oppression; for tribals, rights to forests.

4. Towards Civil Disobedience

• Some leaders, tired of mass struggles, wanted to take part in elections to provincial councils. C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress to argue for a return to council politics; younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for more radical mass agitation and full independence.
• The worldwide economic depression made agricultural prices fall from 1926 and collapse after 1930, causing turmoil in the countryside.
• The Simon Commission, set up by the Tory government in Britain to look into the functioning of the constitutional system and suggest changes, arrived in 1928 — with not a single Indian member. It was greeted with the slogan "Go back Simon". Viceroy Lord Irwin announced in October 1929 a vague offer of dominion status and a Round Table Conference, which did not satisfy Congress leaders.
• In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of Purna Swaraj (complete independence). 26 January 1930 was declared Independence Day.

The Salt March

Gandhiji found in salt a powerful symbol to unite the nation — consumed by rich and poor alike, and the tax on it and the government monopoly over its production were oppressive. On 31 January 1930 he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands, including abolition of the salt tax. When Irwin did not respond, Gandhiji started the famous Salt March from Sabarmati Ashram on 12 March 1930 with 78 trusted volunteers, walking over 240 miles to the coastal town of Dandi in 24 days. On 6 April 1930 he ceremonially violated the law by making salt from boiling sea water. This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement — people were now asked not only to refuse cooperation but to break colonial laws.

• People broke salt laws, boycotted foreign cloth, picketed liquor shops; peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes; forest people violated forest laws.
• When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Gandhiji, was arrested in April 1930, crowds in Peshawar demonstrated and faced firing; when Gandhiji himself was arrested, workers in Sholapur attacked police posts and government buildings.
• Gandhiji called off the movement and signed the Gandhi–Irwin Pact on 5 March 1931, agreeing to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London; the government agreed to release political prisoners. The conference failed, and when Gandhiji returned, Civil Disobedience was relaunched but lost momentum by 1934.

5. How Participants Saw the Movement

The limits of Civil Disobedience

• Dalits ("untouchables"): Gandhiji called them harijans (children of God) and campaigned against untouchability, but many Dalit leaders sought a different political solution — reserved seats and separate electorates. Dr B.R. Ambedkar organised the Depressed Classes into the Depressed Classes Association (1930) and clashed with Gandhiji at the Second Round Table Conference. When the British conceded separate electorates, Gandhiji began a fast unto death; the Poona Pact (September 1932) gave the Depressed Classes reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils, but voted for by the general electorate.
• Muslims: after Non-Cooperation–Khilafat declined, a large section of Muslims felt alienated from the Congress; from the mid-1920s Congress came to be associated with Hindu nationalist groups and communal clashes increased. An attempt at alliance in 1927–28 failed over representation; Muhammad Ali Jinnah was willing to give up separate electorates in exchange for reserved seats and population-proportional representation in the Muslim-majority provinces, but this failed at the All Parties Conference of 1928. In 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, as President of the Muslim League, reiterated the importance of separate electorates as a safeguard for Muslims.

6. The Sense of Collective Belonging

• Bharat Mata: the identity of India came to be visualised in this image. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote "Vande Mataram" as a hymn to the motherland in the 1870s, later included in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal. Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata as an ascetic, calm, divine and spiritual figure.
• Folklore: nationalists recorded folk tales sung by bards and toured villages to gather folk songs and legends, believing they gave a true picture of traditional culture damaged by outside forces. Rabindranath Tagore led the revival of folklore in Bengal; in Madras, Natesa Sastri published a massive four-volume collection of Tamil folk tales, The Folklore of Southern India.
• Flags and icons: during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal a tricolour flag (red, green and yellow) was designed, with eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India and a crescent moon representing Hindus and Muslims. By 1921 Gandhiji designed the Swaraj flag — tricolour (red, green and white) with a spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help; carrying it during marches became a symbol of defiance.
• Reinterpretation of history: nationalists wrote about India's glorious past in art, architecture, science, mathematics, religion, law and philosophy, urging Indians to take pride and change their miserable conditions under British rule.

Yet when the past being glorified was Hindu, and images drawn from Hindu iconography, people of other communities sometimes felt left out. By 1947, despite these tensions, the movement had united millions; but India became independent along with Partition.

7. Master Table: Key Terms

8. Master Summary Table

Chart — value of foreign cloth imported (₹ crore):

9. Mind Map

10. Tips and Tricks

11. Important One-liners

• Gandhiji returned from South Africa in January 1915.
• The Rowlatt Act allowed detention without trial for two years.
• Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April 1919.
• Hind Swaraj was written in 1909.
• Chauri Chaura incident occurred in February 1922.
• The Swaraj Party was formed by C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru.
• The Simon Commission had no Indian member.
• Purna Swaraj was demanded at Lahore in December 1929.
• The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed on 5 March 1931.
• Ambedkar formed the Depressed Classes Association in 1930.
• Abanindranath Tagore painted Bharat Mata.

12. Previous-Year-Pattern Questions with Detailed Answers

13. Quick Revision Summary